October Challenge
by scrittore18
Summary: "Trembling, the Madrigal knelt down and lifted the older man's wrist, feeling for a pulse. There was none..." Welcome to my October challenge! Click on the story for the complete list of rules!
1. Challenge

Amy stared down at the crumpled body, stunned. How had this happened? He had just been with everyone else, not even five minutes ago.

"U-uncle Fiske?"

No answer.

Trembling, the Madrigal knelt down and lifted the older man's wrist, feeling for a pulse. There was none.

A cold twinge of fear swept over the teen as she slowly stood up and took a step back. Then, she found her voice. "Everyone, come quick! There's been another accident!"

Only as the last word left Amy's mouth, she knew that this … _this_ was no accident.

This was a _murder_.

—

 **CHALLENGE TIME!**

 **So I had this idea a few weeks ago … (after reading one too many mysteries haha) ... a Cahill MURDER MYSTERY challenge! Here are the guidelines:**

 **#1. Must include members of the Cahill family. (OCC characters are permitted but they cannot outnumber the canon characters.)**

 **#2. It mostly has to follow a traditional murder mystery pattern, as in: Everyone is gathered together, someone is murdered, and they all start suspecting one another until the end when the murderer is revealed. Other than that, be as creative as you'd like!**

 **#3. There is no criteria on who has to be killed or stay alive. (I might cry if you kill Jonah, but I'll get over it.)**

 **#4. It doesn't have to be super long but it needs to have a plotline and more than a few scenes before the murderer is revealed. 10,000 words is the minimum. (It can be however many chapters though.)**

 **#5. It has to be COMPLETED by October 31st! I want to give everyone plenty of time to think up a plot and write without a lot of pressure. Besides, it's the perfect month for a mystery. ;)**

 **#6. No ratings higher than a 'T' please.**

 **#7. Please put "October Challenge" in the summary so I know it's in the contest!**

 **P.S. If you need help getting started, go over to the Wicked archive and read the fanfic that inspired this. It's old and I read it ages ago but it's called "Get a Clue" by fermataoso. Oh, and prizes will be announced at a later date!**


	2. Update!

**Hey guys! I've been AWOL for a bit but wanted to give everyone an update. I've been super busy with school, then my grandma passed away last week so I've been out of state and dealing with that, and now am back to piles of assignments since I missed days (cries). I am still going to be able to judge the challenge, but I know I haven't been keeping up with all of the stories that have been entered. To make things less stressful on me, I am planning to read them all in one setting from the first to last chapter (and that will help my judging as well) once the challenge has ended.**

 **I've seen several posts referencing the word limit, so I wanted to add that if you get close to 10,000, that will suffice. The word specification was mainly for plot reasons; I wanted stories that were fully-plotted with suspense and so on.**

 **Prizes are as follows:**

 **1st prize: A short story that includes the characters/plot of the person's choice (probably will be 3-5 chapters)**

 **2nd prize: A oneshot that includes the characters/plot of the person's choice**

 **I wish I could do more as far as prizes are concerned but I am not artistic and can't really think of anything else to do besides write.**

 **Also, if anyone sees a story or anyone has entered a story that is NOT in my writing challenge community, please tell me! That is where I'm going to be reading/judging from. Thanks!**

 **I appreciate everyone who has entered and I can't wait to read what kinds of plots and schemes you have came up with!**

 **ONLY 13 DAYS LEFT!**


	3. Another Update

**Hey everyone! Just wanted to let y'all know that I probably will not be able to judge the contest until Saturday or Sunday. So even though the contest is supposed to end tomorrow night, as long as you get your stories done by Friday you should be good. Also, if anyone needs more time let me know, but I can't extend it longer than a week due to the holidays and finals. I won't have any time then! Let me know. I can't wait to read your stories. :)**

 **And I know I'm breaking a rule by this not being a chapter, so a writing snippet is below. It's from something I started a couple of weeks ago but will probably never finish (at least not for a while) sooo...**

She didn't know when it had happened. It wasn't as if she'd woken up one day and wanted to be with him. It wasn't sudden, a rush of fireworks and emotions. But there was still emotion there, just subtle. Every time she was near him, her heart would fill with warmth. Every time she heard him comment on how attractive another girl was, her heart would clench. And every time he looked into her eyes and gave her that smile, her heart would break. Because she wanted his love.

His love: _something that she would never have._


	4. And The Winner Is

**First, thank you to EVERYONE that entered the contest! I was only expecting like, one entry or something, so it was nice that I had several! Grass-Berry09, 39CluesFan-Star, 39addict101, Rubybird2329, and TheGraceOfDawn, THANK YOU! You guys all had great plots, twists, and I had no idea on any of them who it was at the initial murder.**

 **So the winner is...TheGraceOfDawn with _"Cruel Irony"_!**

 **The runner-up is...39addict101 with _"A Deadly Game"_!**

 **I judged based on several things: Plot, character consistency, character development, descriptions/emotions, plot twist/drama, and grammar/spelling/punctuation. Things such as my personal favorite characters/pairings were not taken into consideration, and the characters who died and/or was the murderer was not taken in consideration either.**

 **1st prize is a short story of the winner's choice (plot, characters, etc) so just let me know what you want Grace and I'll start writing!**

 **2nd prize is a oneshot of the runner-up's choice (so now is your chance to get me to write a Sinead/Ian story Addict! lol)**

 **Also, I want to apologize for not staying up on the stories during the contest. As the person who was hosting, I should have been. The death in my family did throw my college behind quite a bit, but I still feel bad about it and could have tried harder. That being said, thanks to all of you for being so patient and understanding, and I hope that everyone enjoyed writing the stories! Now someone needs to host a Christmas challenge. ;)**


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